The story so far
The ground farmers depend on is under chemical assault from directions most people never see. PFAS 'forever chemicals' spread through sewage-sludge fertilizer, nitrate runoff fouling rural drinking water, pesticide drift, and legacy contaminants that persist in soil for generations — all of it landing on the land that grows the nation's food.
Regulation has lagged the science badly. The EPA is still setting limits for contaminants that have been in the environment for decades, and farmers frequently discover a problem — a poisoned well, a tainted milk test, a field that can no longer be planted — only after the damage is done and the liability lands on them rather than the polluter.
This pillar covers the contamination and the accountability gap around it: what's in the soil and water, who put it there, what the science actually shows, and whether the agencies charged with protecting farmland are moving fast enough to matter. We source every claim to regulators, researchers, and the public record.
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2026
- Oil drilling threatens farm water across the West
- Minnesota's warming winters are breaking farm systems
- EPA Walks Back Iowa Drinking-Water Protections Amid Lawsuit
- Willapa Bay's oyster growers fight an invisible invader
- Michigan puts $1.9M behind PFAS fixes for farmers
- Illinois climate law promised migrants a home. Implementation stalled.
- Germany is backing up US climate data. Here's why that matters for farms.
- Carbon Capture Won't Save Farmland from Big Tech
- California Communities Push Back on Carbon Capture Plans
- What Is Glyphosate, and Why It Matters
- California's Paraquat Ban Opens Door for Wider Pesticide Crackdown
- Ogallala farmers are taking control of water, one pivot at a time
- Why California's paraquat ban matters everywhere
- USDA Launches $400K Grants to Fight PFAS Contamination on Farms
- EPA air monitors disappearing—farmers and farmworkers lose the right to know
- UN declares PFAS a human rights crisis
- Ag pollution thrives when air monitors disappear
- USDA isn't ready for climate-driven farm pests and disease
- Record Outbreak Ends. The Food Safety Reckoning Begins.
- Chemours Agrees Record PFAS Settlement in North Carolina
- EPA Guts Chemical Plant Pollution Rule, Industrial Farms Cheer
- Screwworms at the Border: A Tropical Pest Creeps North
- Trump's Latest Waters Rule Would Gut Protections Farmers Need
- Gulf's Dead Zone Hits 40-Year Low
- Food Safety Fears Send Salinas Valley Farmers to the Brink
- USDA Shelves Cyclospora Research as Food Safety Gaps Widen
- Western Wildfires Scorch 7.5M Acres, Displace Ranchers
- Climate's Cherry Crop Reckoning Hits Michigan Hard
- Southwest farmers face steep water cuts as Colorado River dries
- Federal Court Upholds EPA's First PFAS Hazard Standard
- Illinois study pins weed-control costs in the hundreds of millions
- NC's Poultry Boom Is Drowning Its Water Supply
- Illinois Diverts Pesticide Oversight Funds to Broader State Operations
- Summer Heat Chokes Cattle Across U.S. as Pasture Quality Fails
- California Moves on PFAS as 'Forever Chemicals' Threaten Farmland
- FDA tightens antibiotic oversight—what farms need to know
- Ticks are farming's new climate crisis—and farmers can't escape them
- California bans toxic herbicide tied to Parkinson's
- Cotton jassid creeps north—and U.S. growers are not ready
- EPA Approves PFAS 'Forever Chemicals' Despite Cancer Warnings
- Congress Eyes Warning Labels on Ultra-Processed Foods
- Cyclospora, climate, and why produce keeps making us sick
- Forever Chemicals Creep Into U.S. Farmland Via Biosolids
- EPA Challenges Farmers to Ditch Harvest Pesticides for $30 Million
- EPA Expands Carcinogenic Forever-Chemical Pesticide to Food Crops
- Winter Wheat Crop Collapses to 60-Year Low Amid Plains Drought
- EPA Quietly Approves PFAS Pesticides as 'Forever Chemicals' Spread
- Record Heat Threatens Northern Plains Spring Wheat and Barley
- EPA Replaces PFAS Risk Science With 'Voluntary' Guidance
- EPA Approves PFAS Pesticides Despite Contamination Risks
- Pennsylvania Heat Wave Triggers Drought Disaster Declaration
- EPA's Forever-Chemical Pesticide Blitz: What Farmers Need to Know
- EPA Approves PFAS Pesticides, Poisoning the Soil
- When the Feds Drain the Well
- Congress Moves to Override Supreme Court Pesticide Immunity Ruling
- EPA Approves 'Forever Chemicals' on Food Crops—No Warning to Farmworkers
- EPA Buried Its Own Nitrate Damage Assessment
- EPA's Dual PFAS Gambit: Delay Some Rules, Rescind Others
- Court Bars Roundup Cancer Suits, Leaving Farmworkers Exposed
- Supreme Court Blocks Roundup Cancer Suits, Shields Monsanto
- California Acts on PFAS: Assembly Bans Forever Chemicals by 2035
- PFAS from Pesticides Found Widespread in California Water
- Factory Farms Are a Food Safety Risk. Consolidation Made It Worse.
- Paraquat Is Banned in the EU. It's Still Being Sprayed on US Farms.
- California Moves to Ban PFAS Pesticides That Show Up in 9 in 10 Peaches
- Budget Rider Would Defund EPA's PFAS-in-Biosolids Rule
- Forever Chemicals on the Farm: How PFAS-Laced Sludge Poisoned American Cropland